FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ILLINOIS EPA - PAGE 3

Following two discharges of hundreds of thousands of gallons of contaminated water, a chemical plant south of Champaign has announced that it will shut down temporarily rather than risk a third discharge. After the first leak into the Kaskaskia River last week, residents of the Douglas County towns of Arcola and Tuscola, which draw on the river, were told not to use public water. Quantum Chemical Corp. announced the shutdown of its Tuscola plant Tuesday after state officials revealed that the plant discharged 855,000 gallons of partially treated waste water into the Kaskaskia late Monday.

Hank Naour, manager at the Bureau of Air Toxics Unit, Illinois EPA, will address the 11:30 a.m. monthly luncheon meeting of the Addison Association of Commerce and Industry, Inc. on May 27 at Empress Banquets, 200 E. Lake St., Addison, on "USEPA Accidental Release Prevention." Information will be presented on which businesses are subject to the federal rule to prevent accidental releases of chemicals into the environment. On June 21, companies of all sizes that use certain chemicals will be required to submit plans that detail how they will prevent accidental releases from occurring.

Illinois and environmental groups sued the federal government Friday, seeking tougher limits on soot pollution from six coal-fired power plants. Two lawsuits filed separately by Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and a coalition of environmental advocates are the latest attempt to force Midwest Generation to clean up its aging power plants. The suits state that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois EPA should have set more stringent limits on soot pollution from the plants when regulators renewed the company's operating permits last year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it may take several months to rule on a petition from Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan to block a proposed municipal waste incinerator in south suburban Robbins. The agency received Hartigan's petition Thursday, said spokeswoman Robin Woods. She said it would be referred to the agency's chief judicial officer, who would give the Illinois EPA 45 days to respond before making a recommendation to EPA Administrator William Riley.

Overwhelmed by a rash of peaker power plant proposals, the Lake County Board on Tuesday unanimously urged delaying action on state permits for such plants "until appropriate guidelines can be established." At the same time, the county officials voted to send a strong message to state legislators to regulate the peaker power-plant industry, which is seen as growing rapidly without governmental controls. "We have something the legislature really did not anticipate with deregulation" of the electric power industry, said Lake County Board Chairman James LaBelle.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency lacks "adequate controls" to ensure that hazardous waste violations are resolved, and its records of toxic substances are "inaccurate and incomplete," according to a state review of the agency released Friday. Moreover, Auditor Gen. Robert Cronson charged in his report that the state's efforts to crack down on hazardous waste violators have been "impeded" because the agency lacks enforcement authority to penalize polluters.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency on Monday notified the City of Chicago that it may file a lawsuit against the city alleging the city is violating the Environmental Protection Act in its operation of Stearns Quarry, 2800 S. Halsted St. The South Side quarry is being used for disposal of incinerator ash from the Northwest Side municipal incinerator. The Illinois EPA in a press release charged that fly ash and bottom ash generated by the incinerator contain metal debris and potentially hazardous levels of heavy metal such as lead and cadmium and that the ash is being deposited at the quarry without regard to environmental rules and regulations.

It got by for almost 20 years without one, but the Rolling Meadows garbage-handling operation now has a state permit. Last October, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency determined that the suburban site needed a state permit. Rolling Meadows officials claimed that state law had exempted their operation, where since the early 1970s garbage trucks have dumped their loads for collection by larger trucks, which haul the trash to landfills. But officials filed for a permit anyway.

An electrical generating plant near Woodstock may create enough noise to be considered a nuisance for neighbors, an expert testified Friday during the sixth day of hearings on the proposed facility. Gregory Zak, an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency noise adviser, contradicted a report prepared by consultants for Indeck Energy Services, the company that wants to build the generator. Zak, the agency's only employee enforcing noise regulations, said the consultants' report was flawed because it did not follow Illinois EPA standards.